Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (86 page)

Long before Miller Park or even the modern Brewers’ arrival, professional baseball had enjoyed a vibrant life in
Milwaukee. The first incarnation of the American League Brewers took the field in 1901 when Milwaukee was one of the Junior Circuit’s founding members. The team played at Athletic Park, a site now covered by Interstate 43. Those Brewers lasted only one season before leaving to become the St. Louis Browns. The “Brewers” nickname would return from 1902–1952 as a minor league club that played in the Double-A American Association. In 1919 a Milwaukeean named Otto Borchert bought the team and Athletic Park was renamed Borchert Field. Borchert was an oddly shaped park. It was like a square with the power alleys on the corners. Its dimensions were 266 feet down the lines, 395 feet to straightaway center, and considerably deeper in the alleys.

In 1941 the “Suds” were purchased by a young Bill Veeck—yes, that Bill Veeck—as the baseball visionary got his first stab at management. Veeck wasted no time in experimenting with the sort of promotions that would garner his nickname, “Barnum Bill.” Some of the more memorable gimmicks were giveaways of livestock, ladders, and vegetables, and the institution of morning games for the enjoyment of third-shift workers. Veeck also installed a right-field retaining fence that could be used to keep balls in the park. The only problem was that Bill retracted it when the home team came to bat. The fence was banned after only one day.

In 1923 the Milwaukee Bears—the city’s entrant in the Negro National League—also played at Borchert Field. But the Bears didn’t draw well enough and couldn’t finish the season. Another high point for baseball in Beertown involved the beloved Milwaukee Chicks of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, who enjoyed much success during the war years. But sadly the league declined once the men returned and eventually folded. The Chicks called Borchert Field “home” for twelve seasons.

Major League Baseball returned to Milwaukee in 1953 when Boston Braves owner Lou Perini decided to stop trying to compete with his more successful cross-town rivals, and moved west. The Braves were the first franchise to change cities since 1903 when Baltimore moved to New York. Many baseball historians point to the Braves’ move as the beginning of a new era in baseball migration. In 1953 the Milwaukee Braves broke the National League record for attendance, drawing more than 1.8 million fans to County Stadium. Surely the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Athletics, who would all head West in the subsequent years, were aware of this when they made their own decisions to seek greener (as in dollar-bill-green) baseball pastures. Brooklyn, you can blame Boston for showing your team the way out the door.

Josh:
Ah, they’re New Yorkers, they got what they deserved.

Kevin:
The Milwaukee Braves won a World Series four years after leaving Boston.

Josh:
So?

Kevin:
I bet your forefathers felt ripped off.

Josh:
Nah. There was never more than one team in Beantown as far as my forefathers were concerned.

The Braves’ attendance record was no small feat, considering County Stadium seated only thirty-six thousand back then. Built on the site of a stone quarry, the park resembled Tiger Stadium in its exterior, its eventual size, and its roof, which was supported by steel pillars that obstructed many a view. It had deep, rounded outfield dimensions that ran from 320 feet in left and right to 404 in dead-center. Year by year, seats were added in the bleachers, the fences were altered, and the park was spruced up, literally. Spruce trees were planted in 1954 behind the center-field fence and became known as Perini’s Woods.

Led by a young Aaron, the Braves won the 1957 World Series, defeating the Yankees in seven games. The Braves also won the NL pennant in 1958, but lost a heartbreaking World Series to the Yanks. No one really knows why attendance began to sag so rapidly after that. Perhaps because Milwaukeeans had been to the heights so quickly and couldn’t cope with the eventual leveling off? For whatever reason, folks stopped turning out at the ballpark in record numbers.

A year after purchasing the team from the Perini Corporation in 1962, John McHale and six former White Sox stockholders offered 115,000 shares of the Milwaukee Braves to the public. The IPO was withdrawn, however, after only thirteen thousand shares were sold. Rock bottom came in 1966 when the Braves left for Atlanta, only twelve years after moving from Boston.

Well documented in the Seattle chapter are Kevin’s feelings about the relocation of the Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee after only one season. But he doesn’t want his bitterness to poison Milwaukee fans, whom he considers among the best in baseball. Kevin was only three years old at the time of the Pilots’ desertion, and the Mariners are his team now, so he is willing to let bygones be bygones. This is how it went down, though: A few days before Opening Day 1970 was scheduled in Seattle, Bud Selig and Edmund Fitzgerald acquired the Pilots. The Pilots were renamed “the Brewers” and they headed to Milwaukee. Today, Kevin enjoys drinking a fine Milwaukee-brewed beverage very much while he watches his Mariners, so all’s well that ends well.

Josh:
The song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” has suddenly taken on a whole new meaning to me.

Kevin:
Dawn breaks on Marblehead.

After debuting in the American League West, the Brewers were shifted to the AL East in 1972 to make room for the brand new Texas Rangers. After a snowstorm buried Milwaukee, the 1973 Opener had to be delayed four days. In 1975 County Stadium was expanded to seat 53,192. In 1976, Aaron—who had been acquired in a trade with the Braves—hit his 755th and final home run against the Indians at County Stadium. After much rebuilding and a few years of playoff flirtation, the Brewers met the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series, which was dubbed “the Suds Series.” Manager Harvey Kuenn’s “Wallbangers” lost in seven games. But 1983 was another blue-ribbon year as the Brew Crew broke the two-million mark in attendance.

Big changes came to Milwaukee and all of MLB in 1994, when “interim” commissioner Selig realigned the divisions from two per league into three per league, reformed the post-season to include eight teams instead of four, and introduced Wild Card playoff berths for the first time. That year the Brewers switched from the AL East to the NL Central. Milwaukee fans bid adieu to traditional rivals like Cleveland and Boston and welcomed the Cubs and Cardinals as new adversaries. Some skeptical fans said Selig was positioning his team to better succeed. Where previously the Brewers had competed in the deep-pocketed AL East, they moved to a not-quite-so-competitive division. And they have flourished in many ways since the move. They’ve got their new yard. And they’ve got an enthusiastic fan base. Now all they need is a World Series win.

Miller Park is four decks worth of enormous, and the Brewers have been nearly filling the joint in recent years. During the summer months, sell-outs have become more and more common, to the point where the Brewers have strung together several double-digit sell-out streaks in recent years. This is reason enough to order your tickets in advance. And when you factor in the reality that the bad seats can be awfully distant at Miller, there’s even more reason to lock in a good seat or two before you leave home. As a last resort, the Brewers sell three thousand standing room tickets.

Why use the word “field” twice? Though screaming to be renamed (we’ll just call them Infield Boxes), these are good seats. And they’re not outrageously priced. In this park, where the upper deck is really up there, you should spend the extra cash to sit down low. Sections 117 and 118 are right behind the plate, while 110 is at first base, and 125 is at
third. The first few rows are designated Field Diamond Boxes and are available to season-ticket holders only, but the rest of the seats are ripe for the picking.

The pitch of the lower bowl is fairly gradual, putting fans a little farther from the action than if it were steeper. But, conversely, fans aren’t as high up as at some parks. It’s a trade-off, but a low grade means there will be overhang issues to discuss later, as the upper decks must hang over the lower bowl.

Again, bad name. But the seats are pretty good. Section 126 on the left-field side is the best place to sit, as its inclusion in this pricing tier means it’s cheaper than but just as close to the infield as Section 110 (an Infield Box) across the diamond. There is little foul territory, which positions fans close to the action. The way the park angles from Section 126 out to the foul pole in left, combined with the high outfield wall, causes a sight-line blockage of fair territory in the left-field corner. But these are still good seats.

The seats in Sections 127–129 do not angle toward home plate, but Sections 128 and 129 remain parallel to the arching of the concourse, which does set fans up looking toward the action. This oddly seems to make 128 a better section than 127.

In Sections 131 and 106 along the walls, rather than a low wall, the Brewers have opted for a slatted fence. If you are sitting in the seats next to this fence it will be a factor. Fans seated here are forced to look through the slats, whereas a few seats farther back from the fence fans don’t face any obstruction.

Most of these right-field bleachers are decent, somewhat comfortable (they’re benches with backs), and offer a good view. We should mention, though, that some are blocked by the pillars supporting the loge bleachers above. We thought the days of pillars at the park were over, but Miller Park has them. Also, there is a loss of the tiniest bit of the warning track from these seats. Sections 101, 102, and parts of 103 provide views right down into the bullpen, with no obstructions. Remember, Loge Bleachers cost the same and are up a level higher, so these first level bleachers are the better deal.

The Loge Diamond Boxes are the first five rows of the low-to-the-field second deck. These sections are numbered to appear more or less directly above/behind their 100-level counterparts on the first deck, with Sections 218 and 219 behind the plate.